Method of playing games of chance

ABSTRACT

The preferred games are based on poker, with the cards presented electronically on a screen and the stakes being electronically processed. Several hands are dealt, in one from one hand face up and the others face down. The player may choose to play the face up hand, by holding certain cards and drawing to replace the others. The held cards are replicated in the other hands, and the draw results in random changes to all the hands. But the player has the option to transfer to a second hand, which is then turned face up while the first goes face down, and hold and draw on that hand. And so on through the hands, incurring penalties as transfers are made. In another form, the hands are all face up. This can be played in a similar way, going from one hand to the next, or the player can select which hand to play at the start, held cards being replicated in other hands, and the draw producing different results in each hand. Variations include a facility for combing cards from different hands to make up a winning hand by eliminating the draw, but keeping the replication. In another version a changeable primary hand is replicated in a set of secondary hands and the player re-deals the primary hand, up to a limit, and holds and draws on that.

[0001] This invention relates to playing games of chance. It is intendedparticularly to be embodied as electronic video poker games, and it willbe described in those terms. However, it should be understood that itcould be adapted to other forms, for example one in which, instead of ahand of five cards, there is a set of other differentiable symbols, notnecessarily five in number.

[0002] Ernest W. Moody has proposed, for example in U.S. Pat. No.5,823,873, an electronic video poker game in which three poker hands arepresented, one face up the other two face down. The player holds certaincards in the face up hand, and this turns up the same cards inequivalent positions in the other handle. There is then a draw on eachhand, with the replicated cards held, and wins and losses on the varioushands are determined. This has proved very popular. However, the playerhas to use a predetermined hand as the basis for the game. It is the aimof this invention to give the player more choice, so that if faced witha poor hand at first he has a chance of finding an improved once beforeanything is held and drawn.

[0003] According to one aspect of the present invention there isprovided method playing a game in which:

[0004] i) a plurality of sets of randomly selected symbols are madeavailable for play,

[0005] ii) bets are placed on these sets,

[0006] iii) the player is presented with a first set with symbolsvisible,

[0007] iv) the player chooses whether (a) to play the game using thefirst set or (b) to reject that set and play with a second set, whichmay in turn be rejected and so on through a sequence of sets,

[0008] v) the player determines which of the symbols of the selected setis or are to be retained,

[0009] vi) each retained symbol is replicated in other sets of saidplurality,

[0010] vii) the symbols of the selected set not retained are changed ona random basis, as are the symbols not replicated in said other sets,and

[0011] viii) the resultant combinations of symbols determine whether ornot a win related to the bet is achieved by each set.

[0012] In some forms, the sets of said plurality other than the firstset have their symbols initially concealed, the replication of step vi)over-riding whatever symbol may have been concealed at the correspondingposition. However, in other forms all the symbols of said plurality ofsets are initially visible, the replication of step vi) supplantingwhatever symbol may have appeared at the corresponding position. In thiscase the first set may be chosen by the player, so that the alternativeof step iv) (b) is redundant.

[0013] The sequence of sets can be the same as the plurality of sets.When this is so, a rejected set in step iv) (b) may be retained but besubject to random re-selection of its symbols. In other words, theplayer effectively starts again with the same number of hands, but witha different one as the first set. Indeed the player could be enabled toreturn to the original first set or any other rejected set in step iv)by scrolling through the sets before settling on which set to select,the random re-selection occurring only when that selection has beenmade.

[0014] Alternatively, a rejected set in step iv) (b) may be taken out ofthe game.

[0015] The rejection of a set in step iv) (b) will generally involveactual or potential financial penalty for the player. This may be by theforfeiture of at least part of the stakes bet, and if there is completeforfeiture it would require a further bet to be placed. Another possiblepenalty is a reduction of the prizes available for winning combinations.

[0016] In a further version said plurality of sets comprises a primaryset and secondary sets and each of the sequence of sets, which are notthe same as the secondary sets, becomes said primary set when the playerhas rejected the immediately preceding set of said sequence, as in stepiv) (b).

[0017] Preferably said secondary sets have their symbols initiallyconcealed, the replication of step vi) over-riding whatever symbol mayhave been concealed at the corresponding position.

[0018] According to another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a method playing a game in which:

[0019] i) a plurality of sets of randomly selected symbols are madeavailable,

[0020] ii) bets are placed on those sets,

[0021] iii) the sets are made visible to the player,

[0022] iv) the player makes a selection of symbols from the sets, no twosymbols being selected in corresponding positions in different sets,

[0023] v) each selected symbol is replicated in the correspondingpositions in the other sets, supplanting whatever symbols were at thosepositions, all other symbols remaining unchanged,

[0024] vi) the resultant combinations of symbols determine whether ornot a win related to the bet is achieved by each set.

[0025] Thus the player can on occasions make up a winning hand byjudicious selection of symbols from different sets, and he does not haveto rely on a second random selection of symbols. The selection ofsymbols from more than one set will usually involve actual or potentialfinancial penalty from the player, this penalty being greater the largerthe number of sets from which selections are made. The penalties may besimilar to those mentioned above.

[0026] For a better understanding of the invention, some embodimentswill now be described, by way of example, with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which each of the five figures show a sequenceof displays of poker machines.

[0027] Reference will be made to holding some cards, drawing others,random and player selections and so on. The technology relating to thepresentation and manipulation of cards on a screen, the reception andassignation of bets, and the calculation and disbursements of prizeswhen a winning hand is achieved, is well known and will not bedescribed.

[0028] Of course, the games to be described could be playednon-electronically, using real cards, although that would be cumbersomeand slow.

[0029] In the game of FIGS. 1A to 1J, three five card poker hands aredealt, two face down and the other face up after the player has placedequal bets on each hand. The hands are each laid out horizontally but invertical registry, that is with the nth card of the top row directlyabove the nth cards of the other rows. As shown, it is the bottom handthat is face up in FIG. 1A, but it could be either of the others.

[0030] The player considers the visible hand and decides which cardsshould be held and which discarded in the hope of achieving a betterhand from a draw to replace the rejected cards. In this example, hedecides to keep the first and third cards, an ace and a queen. Theresult of this holding action is to turn up corresponding aces andqueens in the first and third positions of the top and middle hands asshown in FIG. 1B. While all the cards in those hands could be assumed atthis stage to be the same as those of the bottom hand, there is no realneed to assign any particular values to them until they are turned faceup.

[0031] There is then a separate re-deal or draw for each hand, replacingthe second, fourth and fifth cards, which now show all cards face up.This may be done sequentially row by row, or simultaneously. The samedeck of cards could be used for each row, ensuring that all the cardsbar the matching aces and queens will be different, or a draw for eachhand could be from a different complete deck less only the ace ofdiamonds and the queen of clubs.

[0032] The result here, as shown in FIG. 1C, is a pair of aces in thetop hand and a pair of queens in the bottom hand, but nothing of winningsignificance in the middle hand. The player may collect two modestprizes, but lose his stake on the middle hand.

[0033] The player may have made a different decision at the FIG. 1stage. He may have thought that the bottom hand did not promise much,and so he could have rejected it. In that case it is turned face downand the next hand, the middle one, is revealed as shown in FIG. 1D. Itis not the same as the bottom hand: it shows a different combination ofcards, amongst them a pair of eights in this example.

[0034] The player now proceeds as before, and he would take the obviousroute of holding the eights to replicate them in the top and bottomhands as shown in FIG. 1E, and then drawing new first, fourth and fifthcards. A typical result is shown in FIG. 1F, where a win with threeeights is achieved by the top hand, while the others do not improve onthe original pair of eights but nevertheless may still produce minorwins.

[0035] The player may of course turn up an indifferent middle hand if hechooses this option, and so there is a further option of rejecting thefirst two hands and turning up the third, top hand different from thediscarded ones when so revealed as shown in FIG. 1G. The player can thenproceed similarly to the steps described and as shown in FIGS. 1H and1J, capitalising on a pair of kings in the top hand.

[0036] This shifting from one hand to the next will often increase theplayer's chances of achieving a better poker hand. A penalty maytherefore be imposed, not necessarily at each shift but at least at somepoint. This may be by changing the pay schedule; that is there would beless won from a hand in the top row, say, than from the same hand in thebottom row. Alternatively, or in addition some of the original stakemoney might be forfeit, or it might be taken completely and the playerrequired to place a fresh bet on one or more hands.

[0037] In the examples of FIGS. 1D to 1F and 1G to 1J, the rejectedhands do not disappear; they remain in play; but when some of theircards are turned face up again as the result of a draw, they will nearlyalways be different from those originally shown. In a variation,however, each rejected hand would remain face down, the associated betbeing forfeit, and the player would only have the selected hand, or thatand the one above it, from which a win could be obtained. In otherwords, there would be a penalty for rejecting a hand, in that it reducesthe number of hands from which a win may be obtained.

[0038] In another variation, the player having rejected two hands, maydecide that the third is not much good either, and that one of theothers might be a bit better. He may therefore be allowed to revert tothe first or second hands, for example by scrolling through the handsuntil he has decided on which one to base his play. But going back tothe first, bottom hand will not necessarily erase the financial penaltyof having tried other hands and indeed the more the player scrolls themore he may pay for it.

[0039] A different approach to this offering of choice to the player isnot to have only one hand revealed at the outset. Instead of invitingthe player to hope that the other hands may be better, it would bepossible to reveal them all to him at the outset as shown in FIG. 2A.

[0040] Opposite each row there is a select panel on the touch screen (orbutton) and so the player would choose the hand that he fancied wouldmost likely be improvable to a good prize winning one. If that is thebottom hand, as in FIG. 2B, that remains face up, while the others turnface down. Holding the queen, jack and ace would result in the displayof FIG. 2C and then a separate draw would take place to replace thesecond and fourth cards of each hand.

[0041] Alternatively, the player might have selected the middle hand ofFIG. 2A, resulting in the displays of FIG. 2D and 2E if, as would benatural, the two jacks were held.

[0042]FIGS. 2F and 2G show the corresponding sequence if the top hand isselected and the fours are held.

[0043] But even with all hands face up the player might still have tostart by considering a designated first hand, and if he did not likethat he would move on to the next one, and so on. In other words, theselect buttons might be omitted or rendered inoperative. And thefinancial penalties would still apply, so a player seeing indifferentfirst and second hands but a promising third hand in the top row wouldhave to weigh in his mind the chances of a modest winning hand at goododds from the first hand against a better hand at worse odds from thethird hand. With select buttons there is not that progression from onehand to another, and so to compensate the pay schedule would be lessgenerous.

[0044] With these versions having all cards initially visible, the handswould all be different at the initial deal, but once the player holdscertain cards in his selected hand, the corresponding cards in the otherhands change to replicate those held cards.

[0045] Of course, this introduces a new factor. Suppose the second handhas two fours and an ace in the first three positions and the first handhas a four and an ace in the last two positions as shown in FIG. 3A. Theplayer would see that it he could transfer those two cards in the firsthand into the second hand he would have a full house. Of course he canget the two cards into the second hand by holding them in the first handas in FIG. 3B, but then the two fours and an ace already there disappearas the cards are turned over. With the versions described, there has tobe a draw after the hold, unless the hand is so good initially that theplayer decides to hold all five cards—which would mean three identicalgood hands. And on that draw it is highly unlikely that the fours and anace will reappear. It would be highly frustrating to a player to seethat full house snatched away by the compulsory draw: he would like toprevent it and have the non-replicated cards after the hold stay as theywere to determine the game. There may therefore be an option availableto the player to cancel the draw after the hold, and for the hold tohave no effect on the cards which the player does not want replicated.They would be held as well, in each hand.

[0046] This means that a player with intelligent scrutiny of all theopen hands is even more likely to engineer a win, and so the payschedule will be even less generous.

[0047] Of course a good hand may be spread out over more than two rows.There may therefore be provision, in the case of a three row display,with all hands revealed, for the player to hold in any two out of thethree rows, of course in different columns, to replicate the selectedsymbols throughout those columns, and for the other symbols to remainunchanged. An example is shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, where the playerholds a six in the top hand and a king and a six in the middle andbottom hands, to make one of the hands a full house, in this case thebottom one. This in fact is an error by the player, who would have donebetter to have held in the middle and bottom hands.

[0048] In the next example, shown in FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C, the player ispresented with a 7×7 matrix of five card displays, each being a smallversion of a main display in which a primary poker hand can be shown.Below that is a window which indicates how many new hands are available.

[0049] Initially, the player bets on all fifty potential hands, an equalstake on each. This is not done hand by hand, but by one stake which isan integral multiple of fifty. A primary hand is then dealt into themain display and this is replicated as secondary hands in all the othersmall displays although there the cards are face down. The playerdecides whether to use the hand presented or whether to change it ifthere is more than zero in the new hands available window.

[0050] The hand shown in FIG. 5A is not very good and so the player optsfor a re-deal, which is shown in FIG. 5B. Although the new primary handhas a pair of eights, the player may decide, with one more new handavailable, to re-deal again, and a result of this is shown in FIG. 5C,with a pair of kings this time. Each re-deal can be from the same deckof cards, depleted by previous deals, so that each new hand is bound tobe different, or it could be from a complete deck so that one or morecards could re-appear in the primary hand.

[0051] Whatever hand the player settles on, he then holds selected cardsand these are replicated in each secondary hand. The other cards in themain display are discarded and new ones drawn, and likewise each hand inthe matrix has its individual draw, so that it is unlikely that any willbe the same. This could be modified by the secondary hands, or at leastsome of them, being held at the player's final selection of primary handbefore that is held and drawn, so that those cannot be improved whileothers can.

[0052] This reduction in changeable secondary hands could be related tothe number of times the primary hand is changed. For example, when thatprimary hand is re-dealt one line of the matrix might stay frozen as theprimary hand was, or even remain face down to take it out of playaltogether. So while a player seeks to improve his hand, he reduces thechances of multiplying his win.

[0053] The scrolling through of the primary hands may be offered in thisgame, so that the player can select the one he considers to be the mostpromising. The secondary hands in the matrix may all follow, or beprogressively frozen or diminished in number as scrolling proceeds.

[0054] It will be understood that the number of secondary hands need notbe forty-nine. Within the bounds of practicality and viability almostany number can be provided.

1. A method of playing a game in which: i) a plurality of sets ofrandomly selected symbols are made available for play, ii) bets areplaced on these sets, iii) the player is presented with a first set withsymbols visible, iv) the player chooses whether (a) to play the gameusing the first set or (b) to reject that set and play with a secondset, which may in turn be rejected and so on through a sequence of sets,v) the player determines which of the symbols of the selected set is orare to be retained, vi) each retained symbol is replicated in other setsof said plurality, vii) the symbols of the selected set not retained arechanged on a random basis, as are the symbols not replicated in saidother sets, and viii) the resultant combinations of symbols determinewhether or not a win related to the bet is achieved by each set.
 2. Amethod of playing a game as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sets of saidplurality other than the first set have their symbols initiallyconcealed, the replication of step vi) over-riding whatever symbol mayhave been concealed at the corresponding position.
 3. A method ofplaying a game as claimed in claim 1, wherein all the symbols of saidplurality of sets are initially visible, the replication of step vi)supplanting whatever symbol may have appeared at the correspondingposition.
 4. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 3, whereinthe first set is chosen by the player, so that the alternative of stepiv) (b) is redundant.
 5. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim1, wherein the sequence of sets is the same as the plurality of sets. 6.A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 5, wherein a rejected setin step iv) (b) is retained but is subject to random re-selection of itssymbols.
 7. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 6, whereinthe player can return to the original first set or any other rejectedset in step iv) by scrolling through the sets before settling on whichset to select, the random re-selection occurring only when thatselection has been made.
 8. A method of playing a game as claimed inclaim 5, wherein a rejected set in step iv) (b) is taken out of thegame.
 9. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 1, wherein therejection of a set in step iv) (b) involves actual or potentialfinancial penalty for the player.
 10. A method of Playing a game asclaimed in claim 9, wherein the penalty includes the forfeiture of atleast part of the stakes bet.
 11. A method of playing a game as claimedin claim 10, wherein complete forfeiture requires a further bet to beplaced.
 12. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 9, 10 or 11,wherein the penalty includes a reduction of the prizes available forwinning combinations.
 13. A method playing a game as claimed in claim 1,wherein said plurality of sets comprises a primary set and secondarysets and each of the sequence of sets, which are not the same as thesecondary sets, becomes said primary set when the player has rejectedthe immediately preceding set of said sequence, as in step iv) (b). 14.A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 13, wherein saidsecondary sets have their symbols initially concealed, the replicationof step vi) over-riding whatever symbol may have been concealed at thecorresponding position.
 15. A method of playing a game as claimed inclaim 13, wherein the rejection of a primary set in step iv) (b)involves actual or potential financial penalty for the player.
 16. Amethod of playing a game as claimed in claim 15, wherein the penaltyincludes forfeiture of at least part of the stakes bet.
 17. A method ofplaying a game as claimed in claim 16, wherein complete forfeiturerequires a further bet to be placed.
 18. A method of playing a game asclaimed in claim 15, 16 or 17, wherein the penalty includes the removalfrom the game of at least one secondary set.
 19. A method of playing agame in which: i) a plurality of sets of randomly selected symbols aremade available, ii) bets are placed on those sets, iii) the sets aremade visible to the player, iv) the player makes a selection of symbolsfrom the sets, no two symbols being selected in corresponding positionsin different sets, v) each selected symbol is replicated in thecorresponding positions in the other sets, supplanting whatever symbolswere at those positions, all other symbols remaining unchanged, vi) theresultant combinations of symbols determine whether or not a win relatedto the bet is achieved by each set.
 20. A method of playing a game asclaimed in claim 19, wherein the selection of symbols from more than oneset involves actual or potential financial penalty for the player, thispenalty being greater the larger the number of sets from whichselections are made.
 21. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim20, wherein the penalty includes forfeiture of at least part of thestakes bet.
 22. A method of playing a game as claimed in claim 20,wherein complete forfeiture requires a further bet to be placed.
 23. Amethod of playing a game as claimed in claim 20, 21 or 22, wherein thepenalty includes a reduction in the prizes available for winningcombinations.